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Dear Frankie Our rating: Rate this movie   Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG-13 (for language) Theater release: March 04, 2005 by Miramax Films Directed by: Shona Auerbach Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes Cast: Emily Mortimer (Lizzie), Gerard Butler (The Stranger), Jack McElhone (Frankie), Mary Riggans (Nell), Sharon Small (Marie) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Dear Frankie is such a charming little film, and it grows on the viewer so gradually and has some nice little surprises to boot, that I am almost inclined to say, "Just see it first, and then we'll talk." However, that wouldn't satisfy my editors, so review it I shall.

The film is about a woman named Lizzie (Emily Mortimer) who moves to Glasgow with her deaf 9-year-old son Frankie (Jack McElhone) and her chain-smoking mother Nell (Mary Riggans). We gather early on that Lizzie and her family have moved often. Frankie, in one of many letters that he writes to the absent father he never knew, explains to his Da—Frankie's pet name for his dad—that Grandma said another move would kill her, to which Ma replied, "Don't tempt me."

Emily Mortimer as Lizzie and Gerard Butler as The Stranger

Why the family keeps moving, and why Frankie's father has been away for so long, are not explained at first, but we sense there is an unusual story behind this. It could hardly be more unusual than what we do know, though. We soon learn that all of Frankie's letters are received and answered not by his father, but by his mother. Frankie thinks his father is on a boat called the Accra, which has been sailing the world for years, but in fact, all his letters have been going to a post-office box set up by Lizzie because, as she puts it, reading Frankie's letters is the only way that she can hear his voice. Since it is not too hard to think of other ways that she could have encouraged Frankie to write his thoughts down for her, she may have other motives as well. For example, when writing to Frankie, she tells him to listen to his mother, and this may allow her to pretend for a bit that she has the support of another parent; and of course, deep down, she may sense that her boy needs a father.

The Stranger and Frankie (Jack McElhone) connect

Lizzie's scheme hits a snag soon after the family settles in Glasgow. It turns out there really is a ship called the Accra, and it is due to dock there in the very near future. One of Frankie's classmates bets him his father won't even pay him a visit. Frankie takes the bet, and when Lizzie hears of it, through one of Frankie's letters, she decides the only way out of this predicament is to hire a man to pretend to be Frankie's dad, just for one day.

On paper, this may sound like the contrived set-up for a badly written, wildly implausible, yet somehow formulaic melodrama. But director Shona Auerbach, making her first feature film from a script by Andrea Gibb, is much more interested in character, mood and tone than mere plot twists. She does not push the implausibilities more than she has to, and she builds the relationships between her characters in a subtler, more organic way. She also shows a remarkable economy with words and gestures. When Lizzie and Frankie first meet Marie (Sharon Small), owner of the local fish-and-chips shop, Marie remarks that Frankie is "a smart wee cookie." Lizzie, defensively, says, "For a deaf kid?" Marie, without any hesitation, replies, "For his age." And with that, we get a glimpse of Lizzie's protectiveness and inability to trust, as well as Marie's good-natured, clear-eyed candor.

Frankie and The Stranger—a splashing good start

So, Lizzie goes looking for a man. But where to find him? She tries a local bar, but it looks menacing, so she flees the place and spends her evening crying on a bench. There she is found by Marie, who promises to help her out by hooking her up with a male friend of hers who will be in town for just a few days. That man, known only as The Stranger—because Lizzie does not want to know anything about him—is played by Gerard Butler, last seen singing and skulking about the sewers of Paris in The Phantom of the Opera, and he brings a rugged charisma and integrity to the role. At first he seems to look down on Lizzie for deceiving her son and resorting to such schemes, but as he gets to know her better—and as we learn more about why Lizzie lives the way she does—that begins to change.

Frankie, for his part, takes to his "father" immediately. Frankie loves aquatic animals—he refuses to eat fish, which prompts Marie to call him "a vegetarian who won't eat his vegetables"—and The Stranger, who has read all of Frankie's letters to prepare for this gig, wins the boy's heart in a way he didn't foresee, simply by giving him a book on marine life at their first meeting.

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